Published writer, compulsive reader, Old School Whovian, Match Game enthusiast, NKOTB fan, data hoarder, and - surprisingly, given that list - married with four kids. Welcome to my take on life, fatherhood, entertainment, and whatever strikes my fancy. Enjoy!
Saturday, September 24, 2011
20 Years of Nevermind
20 years ago today Nirvana released Nevermind, and w/in a few months my friend Atta would introduce me to Nirvana, PJ, and more. I can't believe it's been 20 yrs. Thanks Kurt & Co for a great 2 decades.
StarBlazers
watching StarBlazers on Netflix, an old anime about resurrecting the battleship Yamamoto as a space ship standing btwn Earth & doom. I own the old Comico comic books, but was never a huge fan.
Congrats to the Milwaukee Brewers, 2011 NL Central Division Champions!
Here's something you don't see everyday. To be more precise, here's something you see once every 29 years here in Milwaukee. To be even more precise, every 29 years and 25 minutes:
Tonight, riding on the back of a clutch 3 run home run by Ryan Braun, the Milwaukee Brewers clinched the NL Central Division title. It is the first divisional championship the Brewers have held since 1982, back when Reagan was President, the Soviet Union was a superpower, barely anyone owned computers and I was 8 years old.
Congrats to the Brewers. It's not *quite* as fun for me as 2008, when we clinched our first playoff run since that magical 1982 season, but it's a whopper none-the-less.
Good luck in October!
Tonight, riding on the back of a clutch 3 run home run by Ryan Braun, the Milwaukee Brewers clinched the NL Central Division title. It is the first divisional championship the Brewers have held since 1982, back when Reagan was President, the Soviet Union was a superpower, barely anyone owned computers and I was 8 years old.
Congrats to the Brewers. It's not *quite* as fun for me as 2008, when we clinched our first playoff run since that magical 1982 season, but it's a whopper none-the-less.
Good luck in October!
Friday, September 23, 2011
Season of the Witch
Let me summarize Nic Cage's 'Season of the Witch': anti-Christian to a vile degree, full of ret-conned history and belief, and Cage does an English accent ala Costner. Grade: F.
Yessss! Finalllly!
Well, it's about time! The Milwaukee Brewers have clinched their first division title since 1982 (when I was eight!). Congrats!
I signed in as a Facebook developer and enabled the new Timeline feature. I'm sure they'll be some horrific breach of privacy involved w/ it down the road, but at first glance the dang thing is wickedly awesome.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Those Across the River by Christopher Buehlman
Yesterday I finished reading Christopher Buehlman's debut novel "Those Across the River" It's a gothic horror story set in rural Georgia in the 1930's. It is WONDERFUL, a dark decent into terror tempered by Buehlman's smooth, poetic language. I enthusiastically recommend this book. Wonderful.
The Media takes a moral stand - When it's Good for Business
I don't want to turn this age into a political battleground, as I'm content with its move towards "Daddy Blog" but I am bothered by the media and popular reaction to the execution of *convicted* cop-killer Troy Davis.
In the 20 years since the murder his side has certainly won the 'battle of the press' and fostered a myth around his actions that day, and the identity of the 'real' killer.
I wasn't there. I also didn't run the investigation and see every bit of evidence, both that which saw light in the courtroom and that which was ruled inadmissible. I didn't sit on the jury and weigh the pros and cons of what was in front of me. I didn't sit on any of the judicial reviews and comb through the evidence again and again.
So I don't know if he was truly guilty, and I never will. Of course, unless your bio reads different than mine, neither do you. So, lacking any personal evidence and unaware of any conspiracy theory that doesn't reek of fiction, I will support the decision made by the judicial process and reaffirmed by it time and time again.
Do I support the death penalty? Yes. I'm not overly keen on it, but I have no moral outrage at the thought of a killer meeting his end at the end of a (legal) rope. On the other hand, having spent the last 37 years in a state without the death penalty, I don't yearn for its expansion.
Is it merely legal revenge? I think that's an overused argument. To some extent all punishment is a matter of vengeance, simply by its nature, but if our system was geared towards that goal alone there'd be a lot more 'tit for tat' sentences out there. The last time I checked battery convictions don't result in a state ordered beatings. It seems to me that the death penalty is, like it or not, what it's advertised to be: a dramatic, supreme penalty for a heinous crime.
But let's switch gears. Put aside Davis' innocence/lack thereof aside. I am appalled - and I do not use that word lightly - at the hypocrisy of the political left. A consistent running theme of this media circus has not been the Davis case itself, but how the death penalty as an institution is a black mark against our society. Any such use of our judicial power, I have read time and again, soils our collective soul.
As I write this, CNN.com is leading with a story that reads "Troy Davis may be dead, but his execution has made him the symbol for the global movement to end the death penalty." Actor Alec Baldwin has tweeted non-stop on the issue in the last 12 hours, and among his doozies is:
Wonder if the [cop's]family will seek death penalty for US leaders who killed thousands of US soldiers and countless innocent Iraqis
Which leads me to my point. This isn't about Davis. It isn't about race. It isn't about justice, or changing the world. It's all about a blind reflexive devotion to your clique, in this instance the 'cool kids' who believe their primo seat in the cafeteria depends upon their devotion to Davis. (BTW, Alec Baldwin is a smart man. But I would lay down money that most of the celebs yapping about Davis couldn't pick him out of a lineup - no pun intended).
What evidence do I have for this? Well, there's this: earlier in the day, mere hours before Davis met his end, a Texas man was executed. I heard no great media defense of this man, no strong and unwavering devotion to the philosophical notion that state sponsored killing was wrong.
Why not? Because the Texas case wasn't good theater. He was a white man, an admitted racist, who was convicted of the brutal dragging death of a black man fifteen years ago.
Apparently, public objections to the death penalty are decided not by a consistent moral code but by whether or not you can get some good press out of the deal. And a racist white guy just doesn't fit the bill.
I am saddened, not by the death of two human beings who in all likelihood had no compunction about dealing out death themselves, but by a society that seems all the more fragmented and shallow because of the existence of a man named Troy Davis.
That may be his biggest crime of all.
In the 20 years since the murder his side has certainly won the 'battle of the press' and fostered a myth around his actions that day, and the identity of the 'real' killer.
I wasn't there. I also didn't run the investigation and see every bit of evidence, both that which saw light in the courtroom and that which was ruled inadmissible. I didn't sit on the jury and weigh the pros and cons of what was in front of me. I didn't sit on any of the judicial reviews and comb through the evidence again and again.
So I don't know if he was truly guilty, and I never will. Of course, unless your bio reads different than mine, neither do you. So, lacking any personal evidence and unaware of any conspiracy theory that doesn't reek of fiction, I will support the decision made by the judicial process and reaffirmed by it time and time again.
Do I support the death penalty? Yes. I'm not overly keen on it, but I have no moral outrage at the thought of a killer meeting his end at the end of a (legal) rope. On the other hand, having spent the last 37 years in a state without the death penalty, I don't yearn for its expansion.
Is it merely legal revenge? I think that's an overused argument. To some extent all punishment is a matter of vengeance, simply by its nature, but if our system was geared towards that goal alone there'd be a lot more 'tit for tat' sentences out there. The last time I checked battery convictions don't result in a state ordered beatings. It seems to me that the death penalty is, like it or not, what it's advertised to be: a dramatic, supreme penalty for a heinous crime.
But let's switch gears. Put aside Davis' innocence/lack thereof aside. I am appalled - and I do not use that word lightly - at the hypocrisy of the political left. A consistent running theme of this media circus has not been the Davis case itself, but how the death penalty as an institution is a black mark against our society. Any such use of our judicial power, I have read time and again, soils our collective soul.
As I write this, CNN.com is leading with a story that reads "Troy Davis may be dead, but his execution has made him the symbol for the global movement to end the death penalty." Actor Alec Baldwin has tweeted non-stop on the issue in the last 12 hours, and among his doozies is:
Wonder if the [cop's]family will seek death penalty for US leaders who killed thousands of US soldiers and countless innocent Iraqis
Which leads me to my point. This isn't about Davis. It isn't about race. It isn't about justice, or changing the world. It's all about a blind reflexive devotion to your clique, in this instance the 'cool kids' who believe their primo seat in the cafeteria depends upon their devotion to Davis. (BTW, Alec Baldwin is a smart man. But I would lay down money that most of the celebs yapping about Davis couldn't pick him out of a lineup - no pun intended).
What evidence do I have for this? Well, there's this: earlier in the day, mere hours before Davis met his end, a Texas man was executed. I heard no great media defense of this man, no strong and unwavering devotion to the philosophical notion that state sponsored killing was wrong.
Why not? Because the Texas case wasn't good theater. He was a white man, an admitted racist, who was convicted of the brutal dragging death of a black man fifteen years ago.
Apparently, public objections to the death penalty are decided not by a consistent moral code but by whether or not you can get some good press out of the deal. And a racist white guy just doesn't fit the bill.
I am saddened, not by the death of two human beings who in all likelihood had no compunction about dealing out death themselves, but by a society that seems all the more fragmented and shallow because of the existence of a man named Troy Davis.
That may be his biggest crime of all.
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